Teaching Drama to Non-Native English-Speaking Students

Teaching Drama to Non-Native English-Speaking Students

If asked “Have you any experience of acting,” most people would answer “No” and even make a scornful comment. Drama is usually looked upon as a cultural activity, as something that we did at school, or do in an organization or even as something that other people do to entertain us. However, drama is almost as natural to human beings as breathing. Children say, “Let’s pretend.” Imaginative play is universal among children, and drama is the most literal imitation of life to be found in the arts of the writer.

Formal drama has its origins in religious festivals. In addition, drama is deeply rooted in magic, religion, and ritual. Ritual today still includes an element of drama; a marriage service with its symbolic actions and vows, a funeral, a commemoration service, a graduation, a military parade, or a coronation all include an element of drama (Tomas, 1996).

Likewise, Courtney (1985) stated that the uniqueness of drama lies in what the students do. In reality, drama education in the ESL classroom has no content or perhaps the content of drama in schools is different in kind from all other subject areas. History is about history, and science is about science, but drama is about nothing of that kind. The subject matter of drama — what it is about — can be drawn from anywhere: the students’ heads, scripts, TV, or even other subjects in school.

The discussion in an ESL creative drama class is about students’ action — what is to be done, or what has been done. In the major works on drama education — by Winifred Ward, Geraldine Brain Kiks, Nellie McCaslin, Peter Slade, Brian Way, Dorothy Heathcote, Gain Bolton, Gisele Barnett, David Booth, and many others — we see that, in any drama class, the essence is the students’ actions. Drama is about dramatic action: how a person operates in such action; how we think, and how we express how we think, in dramatic action. If drama has any content, this is what it is.

Consequently, drama is unique because its action (unlike any other school action) is about the total process of living between birth and death. It is about human life and human existence (Courtney, 1985). Drama involves the whole living process with which ESL students can readily identify. The medium of literature is language, the medium of music is sound, and the medium of math is abstract signs. But the medium of drama is the person — the presentation of self, the actor acting.

Drama is one of the most difficult literary forms for the ESL instructor to teach because it requires a higher degree of skill in selection and organization of language and episode than any other. One significant factor that makes drama difficult for ESL students is that students sometimes fail to visualize what is taking place. In most other forms of prose, narrative passages aid visualization, but a play is a kind of shorthand. ESL students need help in learning to read between the lines to actually see and hear the play.

Daigon (as cited in Ciaburri, 1975) stated that study after study showed that students had a low opinion of literary activities. Most of this was due to a non-humanistic approach to teaching. Too much time was spent with hard facts, biographical and historical data, and technical terms. Students should not only be exposed, but rather immersed in a great work of literature and encouraged to discuss it in depth in the ESL classroom.

Moreover, plays present different challenges in different languages. In Arabic, for example, the use of drama in the ESL classroom encounters problems because the spoken language is not considered literary (Ervin, 1991). There are even special problems related to producing Shakespeare: Many of the words he used are no longer used or have changed in meaning, controversy exists as to what the correct script is; and sometimes it is not clear what the script means. Shakespeare’s plays were written for a theater constructed somewhat differently from modern theaters and for a different style of acting. These problems are less serious in plays of the eighteenth century or later. However, the dramatic quality of a play is an important element for bringing literature alive for students. Purcell (as cited in Ervin, 1991) believed that the genre of drama could hold students’ interest through scene changes, character development action and the spoken language.

According to Boulton (1996), “one of the very valuable results of education through drama is that it improves the standard of speech. People . . . try to speak better and more with more dignity” (p. 127). Reasons for teaching drama include drama’s stimulation of high-level thinking and collaborative work. It can also be said that drama brings students closer to imagining and reproducing the feelings of people who are quite different from themselves (Jurczack, 2000). The fabric of a story (characters, time, place, plot, and action) helps students to relate to culturally different peoples, and it helps them also to relate to their own history and experiences. Through the reading of literature, ESL students have the opportunity to become a part of another person’s life and thus increase their level of understanding. In particular, through the voice of a protagonist, readers have the opportunity to adopt other perspectives (Smith & Metcalf-Turner, 1997, pp. 19-25).

The work of researchers and practitioners in the United States, such as Richard Beach, Judith Langer, Kathleen McCormick, Jeffrey Wilhelmm, and others, has helped to illuminate the ways in which theory of meaningful study of literary classics can be translated into successful classroom practice. The educators offered solutions that show the way for literature teachers, in an endeavor to help students find personal connection.

Asking students to “step into the world” of the classic realist novel and explore its version of reality is the key to opening up its imaginative, dramatic, and creative possibilities. Active methods allow students to have some ownership in generating meanings and understanding. We must emphasize how teachers can enable students to connect quickly and powerfully with a classic text by using simple, easily organized drama activities (Baxter, 1999).

Our approach to the teaching of drama as ESL instructors must be stimulating and imaginative. The classroom environment must permit students to take on roles without fear of embarrassment. Each must feel he or she is valued as a person, with a valid contribution to make and must not be expected to subordinate perceptions and needs to a pattern imposed by the teacher (Barnes, 1996).

In approaching a script an ESL teacher has two main options: (a) present a scene, or even a whole play, to the students, let them read and try to act it, and then work out in discussion which parts they should work on in detail; or (b) prepare an analysis before the class approaches the text. The latter is certainly easier for the teacher, but less effective. The more the students participate in decisions and activities, the more they will gain from the lesson. Thus, the teacher effectively makes students responsible for much of the examining and recreating of the text (Barnes, 1966).

Barnes (1966) believed that our task as English teachers was to help our pupils to use language to explore and develop the world in which they live. Teachers must accept the uncertainty of a classroom in which the unexpected not only may happen but is intended to happen. Successful drama teaching, Barnes believed, grows from a combination of careful planning of the classroom situation and sufficient perceptiveness of what is going on in it to make possible an inspired opportunism. Teachers should have practical experience of dramatic work partly to enable them to teach it but especially to help their own self-development, Barnes attested.

Furthermore, drama can create a great deal of enthusiasm and excitement in the ESL classroom. By using films, records, tapes, dramatizations, or oral interpretations, plays can be brought to life in the drama classroom. These films, records and tapes are readily available in public libraries.

Furthermore, audiovisual aids give the ESL students an opportunity to engage in such learning activities as comparing the play with its film counterpart and presenting different interpretations of a given speech or scene, thus developing the creative efforts of students.

In a study conducted by Ciaburri (1975), two methods of teaching drama as a literary form in an Introduction to Literature course were compared. Classes taught in the traditional lecture-discussion manner were compared with individualized instruction as prescribed by performance objectives written by the students themselves. The purpose of the study was to determine whether more cognitive learning takes place when students who are studying drama as a literary form in English 102 - Introduction to Literature are taught through a student-centered method, which encompasses both traditional lecture and group interaction as well as an individualized behavioral objective approach, as compared to students who are taught solely in the traditional lecture-group interaction method.

Clearly in directing dramatic activities - as in all teaching - the teacher must constantly be aware of his student’s needs and vulnerabilities. The aim is to set a situation of social interaction in which diversity in encouraged, in which students are partly free of inhibitions (Barnes, 1966).

According to Courtney, (1985) “I can do little better than cite from one of the great master-teachers in contemporary drama education. Dorothy Heathcote says:

Teaching is creative work, and creative work has five features: the drive to want to do it; the feed-back to satisfy the having done it; the content of the doing of it - the level of function within the topic area; the signals to communicate during the doing; and the rituals of going about itwe must make certain they (teachers) are given experience in committing others to work(Teachers must) rely on what they are, where they are in their thinking and how they communicate their ideas” (p. 21).

In summary, as Courtney (1985) stated,

a drama teacher must be a GOOD TEACHER FIRST. Without the appropriate practical knowledge, a drama teacher will not be a success. Drama teachers MUST be good at what they do because he or she deals with the inner lives of their students. He or she is responsible for the thoughts and feelings of the students, for their actions and their forms of expression, and for the way they conduct their dramatic lives. In drama, students are rehearsing for life itself as for art and, as a result, a drama teacher’s responsibility is quite overwhelming in its power. (p. 19-20)

Teaching Shakespeare’s Othello

Students at GazaUniversity study numerous plays from various periods in English literature including the Elizabethan Renaissance and modern period. Of all the widely studied Shakespearean tragedies and comedies, including Hamlet, Midsummer Night Dream, and King Lear, Othello is perhaps the most popular. (Othello, like all of Shakespeare’s plays Othello is complex, subtly nuanced and, historically, is seen as difficult for beginning non-English speaking students. As James (1996) stated, through its complexities and subtleties, Shakespeare gives his readers the opportunity to care about the characters in the play. “We understand their weakness and their strengths, their passion and their nobility” (James, 1996).

By studying Othello students at GazaUniversity are exposed to Shakespeare’s ability to involve the reader in the lives and fortunes of his characters. Consequently, this is considered by most educators as one of the best reasons for reading, rereading and teaching Othello.

If taught creatively, Othello can be of particular interest to ESL students. It is a play about passions and reason. Intense feelings are exhibited here: love, hate, jealousy, and envy, even lust. Students struggling with their own passions can empathize with both Rodrigo’s and Othello’s plights. The play also examines, as so Shakespeare’s other works, human relationships and interactions. For young people in the first rush of attempting to understand how romantic relationships work and when and why they might fail, this text provides much to reflect upon and discuss. In addition, Othello develops their critical thinking and analytical reading skills. The closer they examine Othello, the

·And all indignant and base adversities

·Make head against my estimation. (1.3.295-309) (p. 33)

To enrich student learning of literary works such as Othello, literary, dramatic, and cultural approaches must be employed. We must engage students in the language and the formal elements of the play: plot, character, setting, and theme. By involving them in its dramatic action, Othello is brought to life and students understand the cultural and social context of the play. Activities include visualizing, acting out, reading aloud, and reinterpreting the roles. An effort has been made, too, to keep students involved in thinking, reading, writing, listening, and speaking about various aspects of the play. Students become a part of the Venetian scene and compare the world of Othello to their own contemporary world (James, 1996, p. 3).

As language teachers we realize that stating that Shakespeare’s language is difficult is an understatement. However, to state that “The words are archaic!” or that “It is written in Old English and needs to be translated” or “You need to be English to do it!” is also foolish. Dialogue exists in every play that is very easy for virtually all students to understand. Through performance, we can learn to tackle more complex scenes and make them interactive for students (Tolaydo, 1995, p. 42).

As stated in James (1996), one of the difficulties students frequently face in reading Shakespeare is attempting to “decode the language” (p. 4) The instructor can set up a number of activities to facilitate the decoding process: (a) encourage students to select scenes from the play and then perform them in their own vernacular; (b) select a scene from the play and ask the students to rewrite it as if it were a contemporary event; (c) let the students view the scene in video format (i.e. the 1989 BBC/Time Life production, the Lawrence Fishburn/Kenneth Branaugh production, or the Orson Welles version) (p. 5).

Many of Othello’s themes can be used as a foundation for reading and analysis. The difference between appearance and reality is frequently explored by Shakespeare and easily understood by adolescents. Students can relate to discussions about how friendship can ultimately be detrimental. Likewise, the play gives ESL students the opportunity to examine other themes that relate to their contemporary world: loyalty vs. treachery, truth vs. falsehood, parental love vs. parental control, or other universal themes (James, 1996, p.8).

There are numerous reasons for the study of drama among ESL students in English literature at the undergraduate level. For example, Othello can create all kinds of literary opportunities and different types of learning exercises. It can engage the students emotionally, sensually, cognitively, and physically (Jurczak, 1979). By exploring adult roles and strange situations, students can be provided with skills for learning. In addition, in the study of Othello students have the opportunity to experience the feelings of people quite different from themselves. Through drama, students have the opportunity to use language, position, gestures, and facial expressions (Moody, 1971). ESL instructors can convert the printed text of Othello into a live performance in the realm of the students’ imagination as they read. In addition to the enthusiasm and excitement created, reasons for studying works such as Othello include drama’s stimulation of high-level thinking and collaborative work.

ESL instructors can develop a comprehensive approach when teaching plays such as Othello. They may use a teaching strategy that employs the necessary tools and skills to examine even the more difficult and complex portions of the play and also promotes students’ self-esteem and confidence in their own ideas and opinions. An introductory approach to all the plays we teach can best be achieved through the performance of an easily comprehended scene (Tolaydo, 1995).

Teachers must not act as “directors” in this introductory performance, since they would be telling students what the lines mean, how they should act, what Shakespeare “meant,” and what is right, what is wrong. Consequently, they do most of the interpretive work, translating the scene for their students and passing on their own versions of meaning. If we are attempting to teach, if we are interested in laying a groundwork for our students to explore a Shakespearean play — and future plays — on their own and as a group, if we want them to think meaningfully about what they are reading, if we want them to have individual responses to texts and to discuss differing points of view, then we need to allow our students to be their own directors A scene performed and directed by students offers firsthand experiences and insights into the play than can be used later in a variety of ways in the study of the play. The discoveries made by students during these performances sessions will stimulate motivation throughout the rest of the study of the play (Tolaydo, 1995).